I found that breaking the IR doses in half keeps the benefits more uniform. It alleviates the crash/ moodiness and covers the day better. Instead of 10mg twice, 4-5 hours apart, I’d do 5mg every 2.5- 3 hours. If you just started 10mg, it May be too much at once which may account for the tiredness and moodiness.

Your body takes time to adjust to starting a new med or changing dosage or changing dosing frequency. During this adjustment period you can't fully evaluate how well/poorly the med is doing for you. You just try to ride it out. You likely will have a euphoric period for a few days initially and then it will go away.(This has nothing to do w/ treating your symptoms. The euphoric period going away is often mistaken for the med wearing off. It isn't wearing off.) You will/may have side-effect that will/may lessen during the adjustment period. How well each of your symptoms are addressed may stay the same during the period, get better, get worse, start worse initially and then get better. The way to approach all of these unknown issues IMVHO is to keep a daily journal and just wait until YOUR adjustment period is over and it "lines-out" for you. Then you can look over your journal and evaluate how well the meds are working FOR YOU. On top of this, the adjustment period can be different for everyone. For me it is ≤2 weeks for most things, but up to 4 weeks for others (sleep disturbances). If it helps, we have all gone through this and it was equally confusing, but only at first.

How long should you wait until you are pretty much done adjusting to the Meds? I donno. Initially that is something you need to talk to your Doc about. Then after you go through it a few times you will find out what works for you. Then talk to your Doc about incorporating into your titration.

When should you discontinue taking the meds and talk to your Doc? This is something you need to get from your Doc and feel comfortable with before starting on a new med. In addition to serious side-effects associated with your new med, your medical history history needs to be taken into account.

How much latitude did your Doc agree to give you with respect to adjusting your dose and/or frequency? You need to stay within these boundaries. If you want to reduce your dose and your Doc didn't explicitly OK it already, you need to talk to your Doc. The same especially goes for increasing your dose. If you want to change your dosage frequency and your Doc didn't explicitly OK it already, you need to talk to your Doc.

Getting back to your explicit questions in your OP...

How long the dose lasts is different for everyone. My experience is that it is somewhat dose dependent but not much. Your dose can be too low and not all of your symptoms are being treated. Your dose can be too high and you experience side-effect and/or some of your symptoms get worse. If you're lucky enough to find an acceptable range with good treatment AND acceptable side-effects the duration will be pretty much the same over that range. For me with Adderall and dexedrine IR it is 2½ - 3 hours. I believe other's have talked about 4-5 hours. Bottom line is YOU need to find this out by trial and error, keeping good notes, and doing good reviews.

How do you know what the right effect is? You were diagnosed w/ ADHD based on symptoms that you have. You were given meds to treat these symptoms. So write down each of YOUR symptoms. Next to each one, write down specific real-life examples of the symptom causing you problems in the past. Next to that write down specific real-life examples of that symptom, improving, staying the same, or getting worse. For some you may not have examples for, but others you should be aware of at any given moment. For me that is "focus" and working memory. If you keep a daily journal and try to evaluate each one, examples will occur for the others. Be sure to document undesirable side-effects too.

Should you wait for the crash to leave to evaluate? The answer is yes and if you can get your dose right and/or after your body adjusts there won't be a crash. At that point you will be able to evaluate your focus as well as other symptoms for treatment effectiveness. Sorry about the long response. May be too much coffee. Good luck and hope this helps. -LN

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I found that breaking the IR doses in half keeps the benefits more uniform. It alleviates the crash/ moodiness and covers the day better. Instead of 10mg twice, 4-5 hours apart, I’d do 5mg every 2.5- 3 hours. If you just started 10mg, it May be too much at once which may account for the tiredness and moodiness.

I have done this today and it works wonders.

Personally I think this is the best way to use the medication, the more uniform the effect the best, why would we want to peak and then crash?? can't get why docs don't prescribe it this way,